Program Control retains dead entries

If an application is removed from Add Remove programs, the associated files should be removed from Program Control section. This doesn't happen. I append this statement by adding this caution: If the user reinstalls that package they will need to reset permissions they had previously granted. I would prefer this to re-installing an object that had permissions set incorrectly. It is most likely that the incorrect settings may be related to the reason that the product was uninstalled. Frankly, if the object has the wrong permission, it doesn't work correctly. I find I frequently need to remove the program from the ProgramControls when I uninstall a program so that when I set it up again, it sets up correctly rather than incorrectly. I don't understand why this isn't a default behavior. Also note, I am not contending that Zone Alarm remove a reference to the installing file if that file is installed. But there should be no Program Control on an installation program if the program it installs is removed. Finally a great feature would be for Zone Alarm to ask if the user wishes to delete the installation program that created the application in the first place.Thanks for listening to my rant.

Re: Program Control retains dead entries

You're correct that it is always wise to right click on a program, then click to remove it if you uninstall it even if you plan to reinstall it. Any changes in the program will cause ZA to block it and sometimes without giving an alert. To your point about removing programs, this can only be done by you as a security feature. Zone Alarm protects it's settings and will not permit another application to make any changes including a program deletion upon an uninstall. Make sense?

Re: Program Control retains dead entries

We've had this kind of request before, and I tend to agree: While external programs must not be able to change/remove settings in ZA, ZA should/could have a way to automatically remove entries either on-demand or periodically. I.e. upon pressing a button it could go through each entry in Program Control and determine if the file still exists. If not, the program entry would be removed. Programs residing on removable drives could be included or excluded at the user's option: Because I always want to get rid of things like autorun.exe from CD-ROMs, but others might want to retain permissions for programs run from USB drives or CDs.

Re: Program Control retains dead entries

Hi jrl,

May be this will help, and may be not. Check it out for yourself before you accept it.

The last time I went through the ZAP Programs and Components list, to cull useless references to missing programs, I noticed that the "Entry Detail" box for each program listed, at the bottom of the Control Center, shows all the details about a missing program except for the "Last modified date." The space that should have contained a date & time was empty.

I verified the significance of that, by right clicking on the program entry and choosing "Properties...", which invariably resulted in a file not found pop-up message. I confirmed that with other programs having missing dates, before I it.

So, I selected the program at the top of each list and used the down arrow key, on my keyboard, to move down the list item by item. Every time I found a program entry with a missing date in the "Entry Detail" box I pressed the "Delete" key, followed by the "Enter" key (which answers "Yes" to the "Do you want to remove..." pop up), and pressed the down arrow key to scroll down to the next item.

Worked for me and I found it to be faster than a bunch of point'n'click work with my mouse.